Stephen L. Morgan

Richer and taller: stature and living standards in China, 1979-1995.

Over the past two decades, the Chinese have become richer?and taller. Economic reform has transformed Chinas economy from a plan-centred economy into a market-centred one, raising incomes, creating considerable private wealth and reducing the incidence of poverty. Higher real incomes generally make for more food, better quality food, and better access to health care and education. That these factors have combined to improve the nutritional status of most Chinese is no better illustrated than by the marked rise in the average heights of school-age children since the late 1970s. Despite the strong upward trend in stature, as shall be seen, there are wide regional variations in the increases in height. These regional disparities largely correlate with regional variations in economic development. Not surprisingly, the better off and faster growing regions have experienced a greater rise in the nutritional status of children, as measured by average height and weight for age, than those living in areas that have witnessed slower economic development. But beyond this broad generalization, some surprising important trends are evident. In some parts of China, nutritional standards have risen by a considerably greater extent than might be expected from the available economic data. There have also been downturns in the nutritional status of sectors of the population during certain periods, and parts of the populace have not shared at all in Chinas economic boom. To cite just a couple of examples from this paper: the national average height of urban girls declined between 1979 and 1985, strongly suggesting a poorer nutritional intake in Chinas cities during the early reform period than had previously been thought; and the mean stature for almost all

Business Expansion and Structural Change in Pre-War China: Liu Hongsheng and His Enterprises, 1920-1937. Kai Yiu Chan

Review(s) of: Business Expansion and Structural Change in Pre-War China: Liu Hongsheng and His Enterprises, 1920-1937, by Kai Yiu Chan, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006. xl + 283 pp. HK

Selling China: Foreign Direct Investment during the Reform Era

350.00/US

Selling China: Foreign Direct Investment during the Reform Era. Yasheng Huang

49.50 (hardcover).